Contact-less smart card devices are typically credit-card sized electronic devices that are used in many applications in financial transactions, security, and information storage. Contact-less smart cards are unique in their ability to communicate wirelessly over a radio frequency (“RF”) link to a computer system. For example, a contact-less smart card can serve as a “ticket” for a subway system and include an internal representation of the ticket purchase price. As the purchaser enters the subway gate, a smart card reader in the gate area wirelessly communicates with the purchaser's smart card, debits the smart card for the cost of the train ride, and unlocks the gate for the purchaser's entry to the train platform. The smart card can reside anywhere on or near the purchaser and does not have to be removed from a purse or wallet for use.
Internal to a smart card are various electronic devices that provide memory and control logic for implementing various computational systems. A smart card device also contains an RF transceiver that provides the mechanism for communication between the smart card and the outside world. As with any semiconductor integrated circuit, a necessary portion of the smart card manufacturing process involves testing that the circuit is operational, including the wireless RF link in the smart card, and determining if the smart card meets various electrical signaling specifications.
While there are numerous test systems for testing logic and memory on an integrated circuit by making direct contact with pads on the integrated circuit, these systems lack the ability to flexibly generate, receive, and test the necessary RF signals to communicate and test a smart card. Test systems capable of testing smart card devices, for example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,466,007, may be able to test multiple smart card devices in parallel and synchronously and thus have limitations on their abilities to handle the asynchronous response time of a large collection of smart card devices. In some cases, smart card devices that operate correctly may fail to test correctly due to the limitations of the testing system and thus must be re-tested. This is very inefficient and causes an increase in testing costs.
There is therefore a need to provide an automated, flexible, and efficient system for testing smart card devices.